Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more

Download & Play

Questions

Newspaper Page Text

r .
5
r
OFT u
H
DIUJU
VOL. XXXVII-NO. 29.
BOLIVAR, TENNESSEE, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1902.
SUBSCRIPTION: $1.00 Per Year
BOLIVAR
FEBRUARY. 1902
i
'(
"l
?
l
l
"t
)
?l
l
(
h
l
?i
l
id
sra.
EOK.
TTES.
VED.
thus.
rni.
Sit.
'I!
I;
i it;
1 t;
8
10 11
12
13
14
ID ?I5
'I
16
17
18! 19120
21
22 $
23 24
25 26 27
28
id
'0
A MORECORD;
All the News of the Past Seven
Days Condensed.
II03IE AND FOREIGN ITEMS
Xcwg of tlie Industrial Field, Persona
and Political Items, Happenings
at Home and Abroad.
THE SEWS FROM ALL THE WORLD
CONGRESSIONAL,.
An animated and prolonged discussion
was precipitated in the senate on the 27th
over the right of army officers to criticise
utterances made in the senate or else
where on the conduct of affairs in the
Philippines. Gen. "VVheaton was taken
sharply to task for statements attributed
to him in dispatches from Manila The
house passed a bill to provide for the com
pulsory attendance of witnesses before
registers and receivers of the general land
office. A bill was introduced providing for
coinage of 2-cent pieces to meet de
mands for small change. A bill to appro-
priate $100,000 for establishing homes for
tne teaching of articulate speech to deaf
children was defeated. Adjourned until
Wednesdav
Senator Kelson's bill creating a depart
ment of commerce was passed in the sen
ate on the 2Sth and the Philippine meas
tire was debated. Senator Hoar reported
favorably his bill increasing the salaries
of federal judges and senators and repre
sentatives. A substitute for the Nicaragua
bill was introduced which authorizes the
president to choose between the Panama
and the Nicaragua routes The house
committee on commerce reported in favor
of government construction, operation and
maintenance of a Pacific cable.
In the senate on the 23th discussion of
Philippine affairs and that portion of the
Dingley act which authorized the nego
tiations of reciprocity treaties' occupied
me rime in tne house bills were re
ported for a permanent census bureau
to prevent the false branding or marking
of food and dairy products by providing
heavy penalties, to punish anarchy, and
granting a pension of $-5 per snonth to the
last surviving soldier of the war of 1S12;
Jliram Crok, of OneiCa county, N. Y.,
aged 102 years. The republican members
of the ways and means committee voted
unanimously for the repeal of all the war
taxes
On the SOth bills were passed in the sen
ate appropriating jiau.ooo for improving
the public building at Springfield, III., ar.d
granting to the state of Wyoming 50,000
acres of land to aid the state soldiers' and
sailors' home. A joint resolution was
adopttd respecting the succession of the
presidency in case the president-elect
shouid die between the time of his elec
tion and the date of his inauguration In
the house the bill for the creation of a per
manent census bureau was passed and the
ways and means committee reported a bill
repealing all that remains of the Spanish
war tax.
DOMESTIC.
The Washington correspondent of a
London paper declares England went
further than mere diplomatic friend
ship in preventing Eureopean inter
vention in the Spanish war.
The Pioneer Limited, of the Chicago.
Milwaukee & St. Paul road ran into two
street cars at the West C hicago avenue
grade crossing in Chicago. Twelve
persons were injured, one of whom
may die.
lhree ex-members of the St. Louis
city council and house of delegates
have been arrested charged with
bribery in connection with street rail
way legislation.
Six persons were killed, over a hun
dred were injured and a property loss
of over $1,000,000 was caused bv an ex
plosion at the Park avenue shaft of
the New York Rapid Transit tunnel.
The Murray Hill hotel is so badly
shaken that it has been abandoned as
unsafe.
At P.ranchville, S. C, robbers terri-
lied the passengers on a train, stole I
two safes, loaded them on wagons and I
disappeared, the attack being made
at seven o'clock in the evening.
Joseph Calvin, lately from Carmi,
m., and a voting son and daughter of
Cleve Smith were drowned while skat
ing near Alki, Wash.
A dispatch from Washington, to the
New York Herald say? that President
Roosevelt will decide Rear Admiral
Fchtey's appeal adversely to Schley.
The United States supreme court
heard arguments in the case of the
state of Minnesota against the North
ern Securities company on the mat
ter of jurisdiction, and took the pleas
under advisement.
The mine workers' convention voted
to levy an assessment on all members
of the organization "to carry to a
speed3 and successful termination" all
pending strikes.
Oov. McLean, of Connecticut, mav
succeed Secretary Long.
Ten lives were lost in a tenement
fire in Boston and several persons were
injured by jumping from windows.
Five hundred persons, many in scant
attire, fled from a fire in the Lindell
hotel in St. Louis, with the thermom
eter near to zero. The building was
only slightly damaged.
The Platte Valley state bank at
Bellwood. Neb., closed its doors.
The United Mine Workers in session
at Indianapolis adopted a new scale
providing for a general advance of ten
per cent, for bituminous mining-.
1901
i-rison guaros "i outn jj.c.-ur. ; ,g id to have befen made ou her owc
I. T prevented tie escape of 142 con- res-dnSibility and in He name of hu
victs by fixing upon them and two were manity.
shot and the rest surrendered.
Admiral Sampson is to be retired on
February 9.
The Chicago health department is
considering' the advisability of quaran
tining against Iowa, Wisconsin and In
diana towns on account of smallpox.
Ex-Gov. L. M. Shaw left Des Moines,
la., for Washington to assume his du
ties as secretary of the treasury.
The programme for Prince Henry's
entertainment has been completed
He will start on his western tour on
March 1, after eight days in Wash
ington and the east.
Northwestern railroad officials have
adopted a new code of signals for the
operation of trains.
A Michigan Central passenger train
ran into a carriage at West Ham
mond, Ind., and killed three persons
who were returning from a funeral.
The National Retail .Grocer's asso
ciation in session in Milwaukee adopt
ed resolutions indorsing a national
pure food law.
Weston Keiper and Henry Eowe
were hansred at Harrisburcr, Pa., for
killing Cashier Charles W. Ryan in an
attempt to rob the Halifax national
bank,
Gold mines on the Indian river near
Dawson are said to be as rich as the
Rand
Three persons were killed, another
fatally injured and many hurt in a
street car wreck at Wilmerding, Pa
Fire wined out nearly the entire
business section of Wolcott, Ind
A sleet storm swept the south, from
the Ohio river to the northern part of
the gulf states and from Texas as
far east as Chattanooga and Atlanta,
doing- damage estimated at thousands
of dollars.
The People's church at St. Paul was
burned, the loss being $10o,000; insur
ance, 50,000.
Edward Kent, of Colorado, has been
appointed chief justice of Arizona
Joseph E. Williams, of South Bend,
Ind., has been elected president of the
National Association of Retail Grocers
Gov. Van Saut, of Minnesota, has de
clined to drop the fight on the railroad
merger at the request of Minneapolis
business men
A Hamilton (O.) judge decided that
failure of faith curists to call medical
aid for their daughter constitutes no
crime.
Andrew Carnegie made formal trans
fer of $10,000,000 to the trustees of the
Carnegie Institution, and Dr. Daniel C.
Gilman, has been elected president of
the institution.
The late President McKinley's birth
day was generally observed through
out the country.
Miss Alice Roosevelt will attend King
Edward's coronation as the guest of
Mrs. Whitelaw Reid.
Admiral Schley's appeal to the presi
dent from the decision of the court
of inquirj- has been made public by
the navy department.
"Cale" Mitchell, of Saratoga, N. Y.,
a noted gambler, Killed nimseii. lie
was tne iourtn memoer oi me inm-
ilv to commit suicide.
A highwayman who held up a farm
er near Tipton, Ind., was killed by
the latter's dogs.
Admiral Schley was given a recep
tion and ball by the knights templar
of Louisville, Ky.
The Carnegie institution has com
pleted its organization by electing an
executive committee.
James Howard has been convicted
i i i i -r-- a
a second time at rranKion, iy., oi
complicity in the Goebel murder and
given life imprisonment.
Paderewski arrived in New York on
the Oceanic to make an American tour.
Edward and John Biddle, brothers,
awaiting execution for murder, es
caped from jail at Pittsburg, Pa.
Judge Advocate Lemly has filed com
ments on Schley's appeal, declaring he
was in command of only one ship at
Santiago.
The first snow in the memory of
the oldest inhabitant fell at San
Diego, Cal.
Fire destroyed the Atlantic hotel
and other property in Norfolk, Ya.,
the loss being $000,000.
PERSOXAL AND POLITICAL.
The New Jersey legislature has elect
ed John F. Dryden (rep.), of Newark,
United States senator.
Rear Admiral Lewis A. Kimberly,
distinguished for bravery during war
and in a hurricane at Samoa, died at
West Newton, Mass.
Mrs. Elizabeth Shoemaker died in
Monmouth, 111., aged 100 years and two
months
Bvron Terrill, the last of the famous
stage drivers of Kansas, died at Gueda
Springs.
Charles E. Pearce, who represented
a St. Louis district in the Fifty-fifth
and Fifty-sixth congresses, died in St.
Louis.
Rev. Dr. A. B. Miller, for 41 j'ears
president of Wajmesburg college,
died of paralysis at Waynesburg, Pa.
Ex-Congressman Charles F.Sprague,
of Massachusetts, died at a sanitari
um in Providence, R. I.
FOREIGX.
The shortage in the Havana postal
account of Neely is declared to be $250,
691. Ten missing marines of a party ex
ploring Samar, in the Philippines,
were found in a starving condition
and delirious, and several of them
were likely to die.
Santos-Dumont made two success-
fulexcursions over the Mediterranean
sea at Monte Carlo with his airship.
The emperor of Germany celebrated
his birthday by giving names to a num
ber of his regiments and holding a
public levee at the palace.
The Holland g-overnment has made
a friendly oner to ureat .Britain to
act as diplomatic agent for the Boers
in negotiating peace terms and Eng
land is disposed to consider the ten
der.
Holland's move to end the Boer war
I
New York and Pennsylvania Swep
By the Worst Storms of
the Winter.
SEVERAL WRECKS ALONG THE COAST
Heavy Snow Blockades the Koadi
nud Tra flic Considerably Iiuped
ed Mails All Lute The "Wind At
tained a Velocity- of J3 Miles an
Hour.
New York, Feb. 3. The strong gale
from the west-northwest, which be
gan early Sunday evening, continued
all through the night and Monday
morning. The maximum velocity of
the wind was 65 miles an hour, and. at
9 a. m., Monday, the local weather
bureau instrument showed that it
was blowing at the rate of 56 miles
an hour. All the nearby marine sta
tions reported the sea rough, and
from different points alons: the
coast there came news of wrecks and
of vessels ashore. The tugs John E
Berwiud and E. S. Atwood, which
were sent to the stranded steamer
Cavour, at Long Beach, Sunday, were
unable to return to port, and both
Bank about eleven miles" east of the
Sandy Hook lightship. The crews
were rescued by the German steamer
Barcelona. The tugs left the Cavour
about four o'clock Sunday afternoon,
and within an hour both were in a
sinkiner condition. The seas broke
over the craft and washed away ev
erything movable, the water gradual
ly filling the holds until Tt was above
the floor of the fircroom and began
to put out the fires. The Berwind's
pilot house was smashed and the wa
ter flooded her fireroom.
About 5:30 o'clock the Barcelona
was seen approaching, and the tugs
steered toward her to ask assistance
She stopped and made a good lee so
that the tugs were able to run
alongside. A rope ladder was lowered
and the men from the tugs scrambled
on board. Fourteen men all told were
Baved, seven from each tug. Fifteen
minutes after the rescue the Atwood
went down, and some time later the
Berwind disappeared.
Fire Island reported a ship ashore
at Point Lookout and a barge in dis
tress near the Forge river life-saving
station. The barge was anchored
about two miles off shore and was
rolling badly. Those on shore could
not tell whether there was anyone on
board the barge. The name of the
ship could not be seen from the Point
Lookout station.
Atlantic City reported that an un
known four-masted schooner went
ashore during the night on the Brig
antine shoals, near where the Clover
dale grounded Sundaj-. Fire island
also reported that the beach, five
miles east of the Bellport life-saving
Btation, was covered with wreckage,
and it was believed that a coal barge
had been lost.
The steamship Cavour, which
stranded, several days ago, off Long
Beach, Long Island, weathered the
gale well, and with the kedge and
lines which she has oiu.Tield her po
sition well. No effort will be made
to pull her off till the weather has
settled.
All Malls Are Late.
Buffalo, N. Y., Feb. 3. The snow
storm which prevailed Sunday abat
ed during the night. Mails from the
east and west are from one to four
hours late. The mail from Pitts
burg, due at 7 a. m., has not been
heard from, while the mail train on
the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg
road for points in Pennsylvania has
been abandoned.
Three Fe-et of Snow.
Malone, N. Y., Feb. 3. No storm in
recent years in northern New York
has reached serious proportions as
the one now prevailing. It com
menced at noon, on Sunday, and in
less than eight hours three feet of
Enow had fallen. For the last ten
hours the wind has been blowing a
gale. Train service greatly delayed.
The Worst of the Season.
Newark, N. Y., Feb. 3. The worst
storm of the season is raging in
Wayne county. At 8 a. m. it was
four degrees above zero. Trains on
the New York Central, West Shore
and Pennsylvania roads are delayed
and all country roads are blocked.
A Fearful Blizzard.
Utica, N. Y., Feb. 3. A fearful
blizzard prevails in central and
northern New York. The railroads
are tied up and there is no prospect
of the north and south lines getting
open for several days. Freight trains
are abandoned.
Most Severe In Many Yearn.
Ballston, N. Y., Feb. 3. Alternate
rain and snow, Sunday, were succeed
ed, Sunday night, by the severest gale
that has blown here in many years.
The highest velocit y of the wind
was 60 miles an hour, and many tele
graph, telephone and electric light
wires went down before it.
I.V PE"SYLVAS I A .
The Worst Snowstorm Experienced
In Recent Years.
Ebensburg, Pa., Feb. 3. The worst
Enow storm that has visited the
mountains in recent jears has been
blowing here for the past 24 hours.
Business is almost suspended. All
trains on the Ebensburg branch, of
the Cambria and Clearfield division t
Ill
1 I
;- : e - uowed . up. The regular pas- jail with the assistance of the war
benger train is stuck in a drift east . den's wife; Mrs. Soffel, died Saturday
of Yintondale, and traffic has been
suspended. Drifts ten feet high in
many places block country roads.
Worst Blizzard In Many Years.
Corry, Pa., Feb. 3. The worst bliz
zard for many years has raged in
this region for the past 24 hours. It
has caused great damage to the rail
roads and to telegraph and tele
phone wires. A dispatch from Mead
vilie, Pa., says all Ji.rie trains are
from four to ten hours late, and
freight has been abandoned.
Damage by Hieh Wind.
Philadelphia, Feb. 3. J3ut little
snow has fallen in this section of the
state during the last 24 hours, but
high wind has done, considerable
damage to telegraph and telephone
wires. Reports from the coal regions
state tnat tne cola i.v intense, m
many places the mercury having fail
en 30 degrees in 12 hours.
Only one serious disaster to ship
ping had been reported to the mari
time exchange from the life-saving
stations between the Delaware break
water and Barnegat up to ten o'clock
Monday morning. This was the
grounding, on Brigantine shoals near
Atlantic City, of an unknown four
masted schoonerwhich went aground
during the night near the big steam
ship Lloverdale. Barnegat reports
that an unknown five-masted schoon
er.with all sails torn away except the
jib, passed that station Monday
morning bound north. The wind at
the Delaware breakwater, which
reached a velocity of nearly fifty
miles an hour Sunday night, had fall
en to 33 miles an hour at nine o'clock
Monday morning.
TELEGrHAPHIC JT0TE3.
William T. Wilkins, president of
the Senter Commission Co., St. Louis
is dead.
Charles A. Gilbert, aged SO, fell
down an elevator hatchway, at St.
Louis, and was seriously injured.
Father Coffey, the St. Louis re
former priest, delivered a maledic
tory sermon, Sunday, ou political
bosses, their creed and practices.
An oil prospecting company, with
a capital of $1,000,000, has been or
ganized at Joplin, Mo.
George A. Baker, president of the
Continental national bank, St. Louis,
is dangerously ill from pneumonia.
Clarence, Mo., was visited by fire,
Sunda3- night, the opera-house being
lost and several stores burned or
badly damaged.
Prince Henry left Berlin Sunday,
for Kiel, and probably will not re-
turn before starting to the United
States.
While in Boston Prince Henrv of
Prussia will visit Mrs. John L. Gard
ner's Venetian palace on the Fen
way.
Ben Masterson, emulating Carrie
Nation, smashed two drug stores at
Cedar City, Mo., with a hatchet, and
caused a riot.
Guatemala probably will sign the
treaty of peace entered into by the
presidents of the Central American
republics.
William 1. Ualther, secretnrj- of
the German Mutual Fire Co., St.
Louis, died suddenly at his home,
Sunday.
Fire at Waterbury, Conn., wiped
out a large section of the business
part of the city. It is estimated that
the loss will reach $2,000,000.
Holland will remodel her offer to
Great Britain to seek a termination
of the Boer war. Rudyard Kipling
says no amnesty should be granted
rebels.
A mine horror occurred in one of
the Huntington mines at Hondo, Mex-
co, 70 miles southwest of Eagle Pass,
Tex. It is believed more than 100
ives were lost.
Cornelius M. Leek, one of the best
mown newspaper men of Illinois,
died, feundaj-, from consumption, ne
was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1S49.
The pastors of nearly all the
churches in Butler, Pa., in their ser
mons, Sunday, referred to the sen
sational capture of Mrs. Kate Soffel
and John and Edward Biddle. The
two latter died in the county jail Sat-
tiruay night.
Miss Helen Hay's marriage to Mr.
Payne Whitney next Thursday will
be the leading wedding event of the
season at Washington.
Armourdale, a suburb of Kansas
City, is terrorized by a runaway wolf.
It escaped from a cage in the gro
cery store of Charles Schreck.
A small son of T. B. Dobbs, of
Hartville, Mo., fell into the fireplace
and was burned to death before as
sistance could be rendered.
The severest epidemic of la grippe
that ever visited that section has pre
vailed at Texarkana, Ark., and vicini
ty, since December 1. The disease
has been most malignant, the fatal
ity averaging 20 per cent.
Oklahoma's School Enumeration.
Guthrie, Okla., Feb. 3. The new
chool enumeration of Oklahoma ter-
itory, just completed, shows the
number of school children in the ter
ritory to be 146,049, a gain of 18,125
for the year. The receipts from
rental of territorial school lands for
the past six months were $135,825.
Storms in Western Europe.
London, Feb. 3. Forty lives are re
ported to have been lost in ship
wTecks on the Italian coasts. Several
persons have been killed by ava
lanches in Italy. Rivers there have
overflowed their banks, a score of
bridges have been broken and many
towns are blockaded by the snow.
Biddle Brothers Dead.
Butler, Pa., Feb. 3. Ed and Jack
Biddle, the condemned murderers
who escaped from the Pittsburg (Pa.)
night, as foreshadowed.
A GftATEFUL SPIRIT.
Should Be Cultivated by One and
All, Says Dr. Talmage.
We 5honld Rehearse All Onr Blefts-
tngi and Give I'raise io God
for Them The Gospel of
Good Slorals.
Copyright X902, by Louis Klopsch, N. Y.
Washington,
In this discourse Dr. Talmage calls
attention to causes of thanksgiving
that are seldom recognized and shows
how to cultivate a cheerful spirit; text,
Psalms 33:2: "Sing unto Him with a
psaltery and an instrument of ten
strings."
A musician as well as poet and con
queror and king was David, the author
of my text. He first composed the sa
cred rhythm and then played it upon a
harp, striking and plucking the strings
with his fingers and thumbs. The
harp is the oldest of musical instru
ments. Jubal invented it, and he was
the seventh descendant from Adam.
Its music was suggested by the twang
of the bowstring. Homer refers to the
harp in the "Iliad." It is the most con
secrated of all instruments. The flute
is more mellow, the bugle more mar
tial, the cornet more incisive, the trum
pet more resonant, the organ more
mighty, but the harp has a tenderness
and sweetness belonging to no other
instrument that I know of. It enters
into the richest symbolism of the Holy
Scriptures. The captives in their sad
ness "hung their harps upon the wil
lows." The raptures of Heaven are
represented under the figure of "harp
ers harping on their harps." We learn
from coins and medals that in the Mac
cabeaii age the harp had only three
strings. In other ages it had eight
strings. David's harp had ten strings,
and when his "rent soul was afire with
tbe them?! his sympathetic voice, ac
companied by exquisite vibration or
the chorda, must have been overpower-
lii sr.
With as many things to complain
about as any man ever had David
wrote more anthems than any other
man ever wrote. He puts even the
frosts and hailstorms and tempests
and creeping things and flying fowl
and the mountains and the hills and
day and night into a chorus. Absa
lom's plotting and Ahithophel s treach-
erv and hosts of antagonists and sleep
less nights and a running sore could
not hush his psalmody. Indeed, the
more his troubles the mightier his sa
cred poems. The words "praise" and
song" are so often repeated in his
psalms that one would think the tv-pe-setter's
case containing the letters
with which these words are spelled
would be exhausted.
In my text David calls upon the peo
ple to praise the Lord with an instru
ment of ten strings, like that which he
was accustomed to finger. The simple
fact is that the most of us, if we praise
the Lord at all, play upon one string
or two strings or three strings when
we ought to take a harp fully chorded
and with glad fingers sweep all the
strings. Instead of being grateful for
here and there a blessing we happen
to think of, we ought to rehearse all
our blessings so far as we can recall
them and obey the injunction of my
text to sing unto Him with an instru
ment of ten strings.
Have you ever thanked God for de
lightsome food? What vast multitudes
are a-hungered from day to day or are
obliged to take food not toothsome
or pleasant to the taste! What mil
lions are in struggle for bread! A con
federate soldier went to the front, and
his family were on the verge of star
vation, but they were kept up by the
faith of a child ot that household, who,
noticing that some supply was sure to
come, exclaimed: "Mother, I think
God hears when we scrape the bottom
of the barrel."
Have you appreciated the fact that
on most of your tables are luxuries
that do not come to all? Have you real
ized what varieties of flavor often
touch your tongue and how the sac
charin and the acid have been afforded
your palate? What fruits, what nuts,
what meats regale your appetite, while
many would be glad to get the crusts
and rinds and peelings that fall from
j-our table. For the fine flavors and
the luxurious viands you have enjoyed
for a lifetime perhaps you have never
expressed to God a word of thanksgiv
ing. That is one of the ten strings that
you ought to have thrummed in praise
to God, but you have never yet put it in
vibration.
Have you thanked God for eyesight
as originally given to you or, after it
was dimmed by age, for the glass that
brought the page of the book within
the compass of the vision? Have you
realized the privation those suffer to
whom the day is as black as the night
and who never see the face of father or
mother or wife or child or friend?
Through what painful surgery many
have gone to get one glimpse of the
ight! The eyes so delicate and beau
iful and useful that one of them fs
invaluable! And most of us have two
of these wonders of Divine mechanism.
The man of millions of dollars who re
cently went blind from atrophy of op
tic nerve would have been willing to
give all his millions and become a day
aborer if he could have kept off the
blindness that gradually crept over his
vision.
You may have noticed how Christ's
sympathies were stirred for the blind.
Ophthalmia has always been prevalent
n Palestine, the custom of sleeping on
the housetops, exposed to the dew and
the flying dust of the dry season, invit
ing this dreadful disorder. A large per
centage of the inhabitants could not
tell the difference between 12 o'clock i
at noon and 12 o'clock at night. We
are told of six of Christ's miracles for
the cure of these sightless ones, but I
suppose they are only specimen of
hundreds of restored visions. What a
pitiful spectacle Saul of Tarsus, the
mighty man, three days led about in
physical as well as spiritual darkness,
he who afterward made Felix tremble
by his eloquence and awed the Atheni
an philosophers on Mars hill and was
the only cool headed man in the Alex
andria cornship that went to pieces on
the rocks of Miletus, once the mighty
persecutor of Saul, afterward the glor
ious evangelist Paul, for three days
not able to take a safe step wtihout
guidance!
Have you ever given thanks for two
eyes media between the soul inside
and the world outside, media that no
one but the infinite God could create?
The eye, the window of our immortal
nature, the gate through which all
colors inarch, the picture gallery of
the soul! Without the- eye this world
is a big dungeon. I fear that many
of us have never given one hearty ex
pression of gratitude for treasure of
sight, the loss of which is the great
est disaster possible unless it be the
loss of the mind. Those wondrous
seven muscles that turn the eye up
or down, to right or left or around.
No one but God could have created
the retina. If we have ever appreci
ated what God did when he gave us
two eyes, it was when we saw others
with obliterated vision. Alas, that
only through the privation of others
we came to a realization of our own
blessing! If you 'had harp in hand
and swept all the strings of grati
tude, you would have struck this,
which is one of the most dulcet of the
ten strings.
Further, there are many who never
recognize how much God gives them
when He gives them sleep. Insomnia
is a calamity wider known in our land
than in any other. By midlife vast
multitudes have their nerves so over
wrought that slumber has to be coaxed,
and many are the victims of chloral
and morphine. Sleeplessness is an
American disorder. If it has not
touched jou and you can rest for
seven or eight hours without waking
if for that length of time in every 24
hours you can be free of all care and
worriment and your nerves are re
turned and your limbs escape from all
fatigue and the rising sun finds you
a new man, body, mind and soul you
have an advantage that ought to be
put in prayer and song and congratu
lation. The French financier, almost
wealthy enough to purchase a king
dom, but the victim of insomnia, wrote:
"No slumber to be bought in any mar
ket." He was right. Sleep is a gra
tuity from Him who never sleeps. Oh,
the felicities of slumber! Let all who
have this real benefaction celebrate it.
That is one of the sweetest strings in
all the instrument of ten strings.
Further, celebrate on the instru
ment of ten strings our illumined
nights. They spread their tents over
us, and some of us hardly go out to
look at them. During the nights oth
er worlds come in sight. The author
cf mv text chimed the silver bells in
he tower of the midnight heavens,
fa'ing: "When I consider the heav
ens, the work of Thy fingers; the
tnoon and the stars, which Thou hast
ordained, what is man that Thou art
mindful of him?" We thank God for
the day; we ought also to thank Him
for the night. Worlds on worlds in
sight of the naked eye, but more
worlds revealed bv telescope. - At
least one night in his lifetime every
man ought to go into astronomical
observatory and see what has been
done by the great World Builder.
Thank God for lunar and stellar il
lumination! Another string of this instrument
I now touch friendships, deep and
abidiDg, by which I refer to those
people who, when good or bad motive
may be ascribed to you, ascribe the
good; those concerning whom you do
not wonder which side they will take
when 3'ou are under discussion; those
who would more gladly serve you
than serve themselves; those to
whom you can tell everj-thing with
out reserve; those who are first in
your home by person or by telegram
when you have trouble. Oh, what a
blessing to have plenty of friends!
Aye, if you have only one good friend,
you are blessed in that glad posses
sion. With one such friend you can
defy the world. But he must be a
tried friend. You cannot tell who are
your real friends till disasters come.
As long as you collect vast dividends
and have health jocund and popular
ity unbounded you will have crowds
of seeming friends, but let bank
ruptcy and invalidism and defama
tion come, and the number of j'our
friends will be 95 per cent. off. If
3'ou have been through some great
crisis and you have one friend left,
thank God and celebrate it on the
sweetest harpstring.
"While all this is so," saj-s some
one, "there are so many things that
others have which I have not." I re
ply, it is not what we get, but what
we are, that decides our happiness.
With the bare necessities of life
many are unspeakably happy, while
others with all the luxuries are im
personations of misery. In the Ro
man empire there was no man more
wretched than the Nero who ruled it.
The porticos of his palace were a
mile long. A statue of him in silver
and gold 120 feet high stood in the
vestibule. The walls of his palace
were mother of pearl and ivorj-. The
ceiling was arranged to shower flow
ers and pour perfumes upon the
guests. His wardrobe was so large
that he never wore a garment twice,
his mules were shod in silver. He
fished with hooks of gold. A thou
sand carriages accompanied him
when he traveled. His crown was
worth $500,000. He had everything
but happiness. That never came.
Your heart right, all is right; your
heart wrong, all is wroDg.
But we must tighten the cords of
our harp and retune it while we cele
brate Gospel advantages. The high
est style of civilization the world has
ever seen is American civilization,
and it is built out of the Gospel of
pardon and good morals. That Gos
pel rocked our cradle, and it will
epitaph our grave. It soothes our
sorrows, brightens our hopes, in
spires our courage, forgives our sihs
and saves our souls. It takes a man
who is all wrong and makes him all
right. What that Gospel has done for
you and me is a story that we caa
never fuly tell. What it has done
for the world and will yet do for the
nations it will take the thousand
3ears of the millennium to celebrate.
The grandest churches are yet to be
built. The mightiest anthems are
yet to be hoisted. The greatest
victories are yet to be gained. Tho
most beautiful Madonnas are yet to
be painted. The most triumphant
processions are yet to march- Oh,
what a world this will fee when it ro
tates in its orbit a redeemed planet,
girdled with spontaneous harvests
and enriched by orchards whose
fruits are speckless and redundant,
and the last pain will have been ban
ished and the last tear wept and tho
last groan uttered, and there shall
be nothing- to hurt or destroy in all
God's holy mountain! All that and
more will come to pass, for "the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
So far I have mentioned nine of the
ten stririgs of the instrument of grati
tude. I now come to the tenth and the
last. I mention it last that it may be
the more memorable heavenly antici
pation. By the grace of God we are
going to move into a place so much
better than this that on arriving we
will wonder that we were for so many
years so loath to make the transfer.
After we have seen Christ face to face
and rejoiced over our departed kindred
there are some mighty spirits we will
want to meet soon after we J.ass
through the gates. We want to see and
will see David, a mightier king in
Heaven than he ever was on earth, and
we will talk with him about psalmody
and get from him exactly what he
meant when he talked about the instru
ment of ten strings. We will confront
Moses, who will tell of the law giving
on rocking Sinai and of his mysterious
burial, with no one but God present.
We will see Joshua, and he will tell us
of the coming down of the walls of
Jericho at the blast of the ram's horn
and explain to us that miracle how
the sun and moon could stand still
without demolition of the planetary
system. We will see Ruth and have
her tell of the harvest field of Boaz, in
which she gleaned for afflicted Naomi.
We will see Yashti and hear from her
own lips the story of her banishment
from the Persian palace by infamous
Ahasuerus.
We will see and talk with Daniel,
and he will tell us how he saw Bel
shazzar's banqueting hall turned into a
slaughter house and how the lions
greeted him with loving fawn instead
of stroke of cruel paw. We will see
and talk with Solomon, whose palaces
are gone, but whose inspired epigrams
stand out stronger and stronger as the
centuries pass. We will se Paul and
hear from him how Felix trembled be
fore him and the audience of skeptics
on Mars hill were confounded by his
sermon on the brotherhood of man,
what he saw at Ephesus and Syracuse
and Philippi and Rome and how dark
was the Mamertine dungeon and how
sharp the ax that beheaded him on the
road to Ostia. Yea, we will see all the
martyrs, the victims of ax and sword
and fire and billow. What a thrill of
excitement for us when we gaze upon
the heroes and heroines who gave their
lives for the truth. We will see the
gospel proclaimers Chrysostom and
Bourdakme and Whiiefield and the
Wesleys and John Knox. We will see
the great Christian poets Milton and
Dante and Watts and Mrs. Ilemans
and Frances Havergal. Yea, all the
departed Christian men and women of
whatever age or station.
But there will be one focus toward
which all eyes will be directed. His
infancy having slept on pillow of
straw; all the hates of the Herodic
government planning for his assassi
nation; in after time whipped as
though he were a criminal; asleep on
the cold mountains because no one of
fered Him a lodging; though the great
est being who ever touched our earth,
derisively called "this fellow;" His last
hours writhing on spikes of infinite
torture; His lacerated form put in sep
ulcher, then reanimated and ascended
to be the center of all heavenly admi
ration upon that greatest martyr and
mightiest hero of all the centuries we
will be permitted to look. Put that
among your heavenly anticipations.
Now take down jour harp of ten
strings and sweep all the chords, mak
ing all of them tremble with a great
gladness. I have mentioned just ten
delightsome food, eyesight, hearing,
healthful sleep, power of physical lo
comotion, illumined nights, mental fac
ulties in equipoise, friendships of life,
Gospel advantages and heavenly antici
pations. Let us make less complaint
and offer more thanks, render less
dirge and more cantata. Take paper
and pen and write down in long col
umns your blessings. I have recited
only ten. To express all the mercies
God has bestowed you would have to
use at least three, and I think five, nu
merals, for surely they would run up
into the hundreds and the thousands.
"Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He
is good, for His mercy endureth for
ever." Get into the habit of rehearsal
of the brightnesses of life.
Notice how many more fair days
there are than foul, how many more
good people than bad you meet. Set
your misfortunes to music, as David
opened his "dark saj-ings on a harp."
If it has been low tide heretofore, let
the surges of mercy that are yet to roll
in upon you reach high water mark.
All things will work together for your
good, and Heaven is not far ahead.
Wake up all the ten strings. Blessing
and honor and glory and power be un
toHimthat sittethupon the throne and.
unto the Iamb forever. Amenl